Meeting with Coptic Choir Director Prof. Michael Henein - The "Theophania 2017" concert

Meeting with Coptic Orthodox Choir Director Prof. Michael Henein

The Laus Plena Foundation met Prof. Michael Heinein, Director of the Coptic Orthodox "Kyrel Trust" Choir, in London on 29 January 2017, at the occasion of the ecumenical concert "Theophania 2017", held at St. Yeghiche Armenian Church, Kensington. The Foundation and Prof. Michael Henein discussed possible future collaboration.

The concert "Theophania" is held every year in January in London under the impulse of Prof. Heinein. It gathers choirs from various Christian denominations, especially from the Eastern Churches, from London. At the end of "Theophania 2017", all choirs performed one chant together, also alternating the interventions from one choir to another, confirming that sacred music is an extraordinary instrument of mutual awareness and dialogue among Christian Churches. The concert was densely participated and received warm applauses from the public. Two Professors from the Conservatory of Pesaro, where Fr. Armando Pierucci tought for over a decade, M° Annamaria Ferrone and M° Marcello Camerlengo, attended the concert with great interest. They listened to the eastern sacred music traditions for the first time.

After the concert, Véronique Nebel, from the Laus Plena Foundation Board, had dinner with Prof. Michael Heinein and other persons in charge of the Kyrel Trust Choir. In addition to information on the respective activities and scopes, plans were made for future areas of cooperation. Prof. Michael Henein and a delegation of the Kyrel Trust Choir will participate to the Musicological Conference that will be organised by the Laus Plena Foundation in Jerusalem in 2017 or 2018. Besides the joy of meeting and of planning future projects together, the Foundation expressed its appreciation for the research work conducted by Prof. Michael Henein on the Coptic Orthodox Sacred Music Tradition. Prof. Michael Henein was introduced to the Laus Plena Foundation by H.E. Anba Luka, Archbishop of the Coptic diocese of Western Switzerland and South of France, who supported and collaborated with Prof. Henein for many years and is also in contact with the Laus Plena Foundation.

The St Kyrel Trust is a Christian development organisation that has touched the lives of over 1,400 young people in Egypt since 1993. It supports young people gain qualifications, skills, confidence and ambition, in the hope that they grow to break the poverty cycle within their families and contribute to the transformation of their communities. The Kyrel Trust is financed, among others, by donations made at concerts organised by Prof. Michael Henein with the Kyrel Trust Choir. Members of the Choir come from the Coptic Orthodox communities of London and Paris essentially.